It is well known that the skin is the outermost organ of the human body and serves to protect the body against external threats or injuries. Ageing of the skin is a naturally occurring physiological condition, which gradually progresses along a programmed course from the time of birth. Skin ageing occurs over all layers of the skin via a complicated mechanism characterized in that oxygen free radicals (hereinafter, referred to as “OFR”) are generated by exposure of skin tissues to UV radiation or during a metabolic process, these OFRs attack lipids of cell membranes to induce oxidation thereof and the oxidized lipids destroy the cell membranes, thus resulting in skin ageing.
Demand for methods of preventing or alleviating skin aging tends to be proportional to the quality of life of a society. As one effort to satisfy such demand, studies for development of anti-ageing materials are carried out actively.
Under these circumstances, coenzyme Q10 (hereinafter, referred to as “CoQ10”) has attracted a great deal of interest as a substance with anti-ageing and/or anti-oxidation effects. Most CoQ10 is mainly found in the mitochondria, which are frequently referred to as “cellular power plants”, and is distributed widely throughout the human body. This substance serves as a strong antioxidant to protect cells from OFRs and assists activity of vitamin E to prevent skin ageing and support cardiovascular functions.
However, although CoQ10 has excellent anti-oxidative effects, CoQ10 is easily degraded due to external environmental factors such as light, heat, oxygen, etc. and is not dissolved in water, general organic solvents and oils, therefore, is used only in restricted applications.
CoQ10 is normally used in the form of a capsule or an emulsion through stabilization in a solution phase using a desired surfactant or emulsifier. However, such stabilization methods may cause coagulation of micelles and/or self-degradation of the capsule or the emulsion due to diffusion of functional ingredients in the solution so that CoQ10 cannot be sufficiently stabilized chemically or physically, thereby restricting industrial application thereof.
Therefore, a great deal of research and study to overcome the problems described above has been conducted, but a reliable or clear solution has not yet been proposed in the related art.
Accordingly, there is a strong need for development of a novel composition to stably solubilize CoQ10 and improve bioavailability of the same.